Timer fob internal combustion



July 31, 1934. B r AL 1,968,433

TIMER FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed Dec. 9, 1932 152M nfwATTORNEY Patented July 31, 1934 PATENT OFFICE rmsa roa INTERNALcoiunusrron ENG INES

' LouisBeeh and Wolfgang E. Schwarzmann, Longmeadow, Masa, asaignora toUnited American Bosch Corporation, Springfield, Mass, a corporation ofNew York Application December 9, 1932, Serial No. 646,476

4 Claims. (01. 200-21) Our invention relates to an improvement in timersfor internal combustion engines and particularly to a timer comprising acirc'uit breaker and distributor for the ignition circuits of enginesfor air craft.

An object of the invention is to provide a timer which is compact andsimple in construction but strong and durable and capable of being usedin connection with the ignition circuits of internal combustion enginescarrying a relatively large number of cylinders.

The nature, objects and advantages of the invention are fully set forthin the ensuing description and the novel features are pointed out in theappended claims. This disclosure, however, is illustrative only andchanges may be made in details without departing from the spirit of theinvention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.

On the drawing: Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of the timer accordingto our invention; I 1 Fig. 2 is a plan of the circuit breaker and themethod of mounting same;

T Fig. 3 is a front elevation of th the shield removed; and g M Fig. 4is a view of a detail.

on the drawing the same numerals identify the same parts throughout.

On Fig. 1, the numeral 1 indicates a cap-shaped casing in which thecircuit breaker is mounted; thiscasing being closed at one endand openat the other to receive the hollow distributor head 2; which is ofinsulation and which. carries fixed high tension terminals 3 to beconnected to the spark plugs. The rotor of the'distributor, also ofinsulation, is shown at 4 within the head 2. Embedded in the rotor is aconductor element or brush 5 in contact with which is a terminal 6carried by the head 2 in line with the axis of rotation of the rotor;this brush 6 being disposed in a suitable conducting socket 7 embeddedin the head 2 at the inner end of a boss 8 on the exterior of the head2. The terminals 3 are aflixed to the head 2 at the inner ends ofsimilar sockets and the entire distributor head is housed in a suitablemetallic shield consisting of a front section 9 and a rear section 10.This shield has necks 11, preferably diametrically opposite to eachother, although they may be otherwise placed, and through these necksthe conductors to be attached to the contacts 3 and the brush 6 are led.The outer ends of the terminals 3 and of the sockets 7 have bores inwhich the ends of said conductors can be secured. The conductor devicewith connected to the brush 6 will of course lead to the spark coil ofthe engine and those connected to the terminals 3 will run as beforestated to the igniters of the various cylinders.

The distributor head 2 has a ring 12 of suitable material embedded inthe outside lateral surface thereof; and this ring abuts the rim of thecasing 1 which encircles and receives within it the rim of the head 2.The section 10 of the shield enveloping the head 2 has an inside flange13 forming a shoulder which abuts this ring and when the shield issecured to the casing 1 the distributor head 2 is therefore held tightlyin place.

The shaft which operates the timer is indicated at 14, thisshaft-passing into the casing through the closed end and it carries onits inner end a,

tubular shaftor sleeve 15 to which the rotor 4 is afllxed. On saidsleeve is also mounted the breaker cam 16. The contacts of the breakerare mounted on a plate 17 in the casing 1 and this plate carriesinterrupter levers 18, shown as two in number, mounted on journals orpivot posts 19 affixed to the plate 17. Of course, the number of circuitbreakers or interrupters may be varied as circumstances may dictate. Theinterrupter 1evers 18 are of insulation but each carries a strip ofmetal 20, one end of which bears against the cam 16 and the other ofwhich carries a movable contact to engage and disengage a fixed contactsupported on a member 21 attached to the plate 17. These members 21 aresecured to plates 22 aflixed to the base plate 17 and at 23 are springsattached to the breaker levers 18 at one end and at the opposite end tofixed upright projections 24 which may be made in one piece with theplates 22. These springs hold the fixed and movable contacts together,but when the projections on cam 16 engage the adjacent 'end of the metalstrips 20, the fixed and movable contacts are separated from each other.At 25 on the base plate 17 is a binding post which is preferablyinsulated from the base plate 17 and connected by a suitable conductor26 to one of the spring strips 23, and the projections 24 to which thesespring strips 23 are anchored are preferably connected by a curvedconducting strip 27. These projections 24 as well as the binding post 25and the springs 23 are preferably insulated from the base plate 17 andthe members 21 which carry the fixed contacts should be connected tothis base plate. The two circuit breakers open in succession, but oneremains open until after the other is open so that, for a short space oftime, the circuit of the primary coil connected to the binding post 25will be completely broken. At 28'is a condenser held fast on the baseplate 1'7 by a clip 23 and this condenser is connected by a conductor tothe projection 24 to which is secured the spring 23 of the circuitbreaker 18 which opens after the other circuit breaker is actuated bythe cam 16. As shown in Fig. 2, the lower circuit breaker opens firstand then the other follows. The lower one then closes before the upperso that there is a short period during which the primary circuit isfully interrupted. The closing of the contacts of the lower circuitbreaker enables the primary circuit to be reestablished quickly in timefor the next spark in the cycle of operations of the engine. The sleeve15 projects through the plate 1'? and carries on its adjacent end afixed head 30 with which is made fast a plate 31. The shaft 14 carries acap-shaped element 32 rigidly secured thereon, and projecting within thehead 30 is a section 33 of the shaft 14 providing a shoulder which abutsthe sleeve 15. From the section 33 a reduced portion of the shaft 34enters the sleeve 15. At 35 are diagrammatically indicated governorweights housed between the elements 31 and 32 and suitably connected toboth of these parts. Hence when the shaft rotates the governor willshift the plate 31 with respect to the plate 32 and advance or retardthe sleeve 15 and cam 16.

The end of the casing l remote from the head 2 has a bore for receivingthe shaft 14, this bore being counter-bored at 36 to receive alubricating washer and at both ends of this bore are ball bearings 37for the shaft 14. The same end of the casing 1 has projections 38 withopenings to enable the entire construction to be suitably mounted on theframework of the engine. At 39 in the rim of the casing 1 at a suitablepoint is a bushing thru which the low tension lead of the ignitioncircuit can be passed and be secured to the binding post 25.

To hold the sections 9 and 10 of the shell enveloping the head 2together and to make them fast on the casing 1, we employ suitable boltswith nuts 41, these bolts passing through perforated lugs 42 on thesections 9 and 10 into suitable lugs having perforated openings 43 inthe casing 1. The ring 12 may have notched projections 44 which extendout through recesses in the rim of the section 10 adiacent the flange 13to be engaged by the bolts 40 to hold the head 2 against turning. Thisconstruction is shown in Fig. 4 but only the section 10 of the shield isincluded, this section carrying a lug 42. It will be understood,however, that the section 9 will have similar lugs at each side for thispurpose.

The base plate 17 rests against a shoulder 45 in the casing 1 and issecured in any suitable ductors attached to said head.

manner. The central opening to afford clearance for the sleeve 15 andhead 30 is shown at 46.

The openings 47 in the flange 38 may of course be elongated to allow thecasing 1 to be shifted angularly and made fast in adjusted position.

Having described our invention, what is claimed 2. A timer comprising acasing, a distributor head of insulation with its rim telescoping withinthe rim of the casing, a ring encircling the exterior of the distributorhead embedded therein and abutting the rim of the casing, a shieldenveloping the distributor head and having a rim abutting said ring andmeans for holding the shield, the distributor head and the casingtogether, said shield having an outlet neck for conductors attached tosaid head. I

3. A timer comprising a casing, a distributor head of insulation withits rim received within the rim of the casing, an outside ring embeddedin the rim of the distributor head and abutting the rim of the casing,and a shield enveloping said 10 distributor head and having a rim whichencircles said ring, said last-named rim having an inside shoulderabutting said ring, said ring having notched projections extendingbeyond the rim of the shield, and fastening bolts to engage perforatedlugs on the outside of the shield and casing to hold said partstogether, said notched projections receiving said bolts, said shieldhaving an outlet neck :01- conductors attached to said 11 head.

4. A timer comprising a casing, a distributor head of insulation withits rim received within the rim of the casing, an outside ring embeddedin the rim of the distributor head and abutting the rim of the casing,and a shield enveloping said distributor head and having a rim whichencircles said ring, said last-named rim having an insideshoulder'abutting said ring, said ring having projections extendingbeyond the rim of the shield, and fastening means to engage the outside3 of the shield and casing to hold said parts together, said projectionsengaging said fastening means.

LOUIS BEEH.

WOLFGANG E. SCHWARZMANN.

